Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Uganda has continued to accommodate refugees fleeing from surrounding countries in the region. Inflows of refugees from the conflict-ridden areas of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continued as of August 2017. A total of 1,021,903 South Sudanese arrived in Uganda (as per 31st August 2017, UNHCR) due to violence or persecution, 86% of whom are women and children.

As the refugee population grows in Uganda, it is also critical to ensure host populations can adequately support the new influx. The Government of Uganda has made refugee-hosting areas a national priority through the Settlement Transformative Agenda (STA), which is aligned to the NDP II 2015/16 - 2019/20. The STA is supported by the UN Country Team through the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) strategy. The ReHoPE focuses on progressively enhancing social service delivery in refugee-hosting areas (including life-saving interventions in Protection, Health & Nutrition, WASH, and Education), with a view to integrating services within local government systems, and on emergency livelihoods within refugee hosting areas. As per Government policy and in order to promote peaceful co-existence with host populations, all refugee interventions in Uganda must include 30 percent host community support (e.g., for every 100 refugees, some 30 members of the host community should also benefit).

Gender perspective in humanitarian action is vital to understanding the different needs of women, girls, boys and men in order to generate positive and sustainable outcomes. In times of crisis, gender roles and dynamics change and SGBV becomes more prevalent. High levels of violence including sexual abuse, harmful traditional practices and assault characterize the life of women refugees who fled the conflict in South Sudan. It is essential to capture these issues in Uganda’s humanitarian response, both at the individual programming level in project design and in programme analysis and development.

The current refugee figures show that over 59% of the refugees are children under the age of 18. The refugee women, stripped of all means of making a living, must manage the heavy burden of caring for the dependent minors who constitute most the refugees in Uganda. Women also take up the responsibility of caring after the unaccompanied minors, whose parents or care givers got separated from the children during flight from South Sudan or got killed in the war. With continued reduction in food rations, and with no means of making an income in Uganda, the burden on refugee women becomes very desperate and sometimes forces the women and girls to engage in risky, demeaning and dehumanizing practices such as sex in exchange for money to provide for their families. Whereas the bulk of emergency support in the SSD refugee crisis has gone towards meeting the food and non-food needs of refugees, a lot more needs to be done to address other socio-economic needs for refugees, especially refugee women to assist them to cope (UNHCR, 2017 SSD RRP). The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Policy on gender emphasizes the importance of humanitarian assistance on meeting the needs of the most vulnerable women. Providing targeted livelihood and protection support to women in refugee settlements also has a ripple effect on the wellbeing of their families and communities.

Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA) is one of five thematic areas of UN Women Uganda’s strategic plan, and an area in which UN Women coordinates and leads the UN system. The WPSHA section, is responsible for knowledge functions, technical support, programme inception, interagency coordination, monitoring and accountability of the UN system to key frameworks and intergovernmental support on the full WPSHA agenda.

In addition, since 2014, UN Women, along with humanitarian partners, has been supporting a gender mainstreaming response to South Sudanese refugee emergency in Uganda aligned to the UN ReHoPE strategy and the UN Women global LEAP flagship programme. Also in line with its global humanitarian strategy and peace and security program interventions in Uganda, UN Women’s support has aimed to: mainstream gender equality and women’s rights in UN and government of Uganda’s humanitarian responses; capacity building of OPM and other humanitarian actors; review of policy and legislative frameworks; protection from violence against refugee women and girls, including, psycho-social and legal aid support for refugee women, promotion of peaceful coexistence among refugees and host communities; and supporting increased collection and use of gender statistics and analysis in the emergency response.

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Representative and close working relationship with the Humanitarian and Coordination analyst, the Field Programme Management Specialist is responsible for managing the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the LEAP programme for the Country Office (CO), including overseeing and guiding people and budget management for the LEAP programme team, building partnerships, resource mobilization and managing knowledge building efforts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage the programmatic development for the LEAP based on the Country Office Strategic Note:

Provide overall programme advisory support to the humanitarian programme in general and to the LEAP in particular;

Guide the development of the CO gender in humanitarian response programme, with a focus on economic empowerment of refugee women, prevention and response to SGBV among refugee and host populations, leadership and adult education;

Experience in Women’s Economic Empowerment and Adult education in a refugee setting;

Experience in gender programming on the nexus of humanitarian and development work in the context of refugee response;

Experience in setting priorities, budgets, work plans, participating in programme development and proposal writing;

Experience in leading teams effectively is an asset;

Experience working in the West Nile region is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English is required;

Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset;

Working knowledge of Acholi or a South Sudanese language is an asset.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.